Equatorial Guinea and UNESCO

What a shame

UNESCO awards a prize sponsored by a reviled dictator

TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA, Equatorial Guinea’s despot, did not attend the awards ceremony in person, but the UNESCO prize for scientific research that he sponsors has at last been handed out. On July 17th three scientists from Mexico, Egypt and South Africa each received $100,000 from his coffers. The UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences no longer bears his name, as originally planned. But that has done little to quell outrage at the decision of the UN’s cultural and scientific body to push ahead with the award.

UNESCO was first offered the $3m prize in 2008. Under pressure from Equatorial Guinean activists and international human-rights groups, its officials declined. But in March this year UNESCO’s executive board voted to accept it.

The prize has caused intense embarrassment. Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Bulgarian head, had little choice in the matter; the organisation’s constitution obliges her to implement the board’s decision, she says. She did not attend the prize-giving either. But all African countries on the council, which form the largest voting block, united behind their noxious neighbour out of a sense of solidarity.

Mr Obiang, who took power in 1979 in a coup, has abused human rights and rigged elections. He and his family are facing allegations of corruption on a grand scale. A French judge recently issued an arrest warrant for Mr Obiang’s son, Teodorin, who is minister for agriculture, on suspicion of using illicit funds to buy property in France. The younger Mr Obiang is facing similar charges in America, where last year officials tried to seize $70m in assets, including a mansion in Los Angeles, a Gulfstream jet and nearly $2m worth of Michael Jackson memorabilia.